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High pressure for low emissions: how civil society created the Paris climate agreement
A coalition of organisations forced the hands of the world’s major polluters and forged a new politics of climate
THE INTERNATIONAL climate change agreement reached in Paris in December 2015 was an extraordinary diplomatic achievement, uniting 195 countries around a highly ambitious agenda to cut greenhouse gas emissions. It sends a powerful economic signal, telling the world’s businesses and investors that the global economy is set to become increasingly low-carbon, and that major new global markets will now be created for renewable energy, and for low-carbon products and new technologies.
What fewer people have noticed is that it was also a remarkable display of the political power of civil society. The Paris agreement was forged over two gruelling weeks of negotiations between governments. But it was crafted into being over the previous five years by a broad coalition of forces from global civil society…
